Live Mint recently published an article by a certain Mr. Aakar Patel. The main target of the article was Narendra Modi. Much of what he wrote in his article was a re-hash of old, worn out themes. However,the crux of the article was that Narendra Modi was not fit to run India because “Modi has never been to college (his degree is from a correspondence course). His simple views spring from this lack of knowledge.” Mr. Patel then went on to say that “He’s not well-read, has little idea about the world or its history. It will be embarrassing, if he becomes prime minister, to have him in the same meeting as US President Barack Obama.”

While this article by a lesser-known journalist would have been ignored under normal circumstances, I have taken serious issue with it because it expressed some disturbing, unsaid opinions of a certain section of India’s entrenched elite.

Why does the degree matter?

We know that there are many successful people who do not have a formal degree. These include Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs to name just a few. Even India’s literary giant Rabindranath Tagore got very far in life without a formal degree. Thus it would be naïve to link knowledge with the mere acquisition of a paper degree.

Even if we accept that a degree may be personally important to Mr Patel, he does not seem to object to other people who have led India without formal degrees: Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi went to Oxbridge, but did not complete their degrees.

The effective head of the current government, Mrs Sonia Gandhi does not have a Bachelor’s degree, since she only went to Cambridge for a short language certification course. Yet these people are apparently considered fit to rule (and to meet Mr.Barak Obama). Is there a basis for this skewed view? Or is it a case of an elitist bias, which assumes qualifications based on lineage, looks and posh accents?

Furthermore, Mr. Patel was dismissive of a correspondence degree. In his haste to discredit Mr. Modi, he perhaps did not realize the ramifications of his mean-mindedness. By his open contempt, he has discounted and insulted the tenacity, hard work and aspirations of not only Mr.Modi, but of a young new middle class that is rising across the country.

There millions upon millions of Indians who slog despite overwhelming odds to get a basic education, learn English, and move up in life, and many of them have no choice, but to do a correspondence course. The haloed institutions of the metros are not accessible to them due to financial and social constraints. Yet they persevere to acquire skills and knowledge that will help them get jobs and climb the social ladder. However, people like Mr.Patel have only contempt for such social climbing. This dismissive attitude is not a figment of my imagination since Mr.Patel himself describes them as the “neo-literate middle class.”

However, this group is not a tiny minority anymore. Forty year ago India’s literacy rate was 34 percent and today it is 74 percent. This means that approximately 40 percent of India’s population is “neo literate” as per Mr.Patel’s categorization. If he cares to look around, he will see them everywhere: serving him in the malls, answering his bill queries, and representing his country in the national sports teams.

This “neo-literate middle class” identifies with Mr.Modi, as he symbolizes their dreams. In fact, he is one of them. This group may not be able to quote Shakespeare, but they are savvy enough to understand the elitist contempt that the old guard holds for them.

Through the years, I have heard many versions of Mr. Patel’s opinion, only more beautifully couched in polite rhetoric. As I understand it, here is the real problem: A chai-walla’s son, from a backward caste, with a correspondence degree and “desi” accent has the audacity to dream of breaching the gilded Delhi bastion. THAT is the basic discomfort. This fact hidden through many roundabout arguments, but small repeated slips, which dismiss a man based on his humble background, his accent and his education reveal the true nature of the problem.

The reality is that a section of India is confronted with the idea of having to deal with a determined, plain-speaking, “outsider” who does not care two hoots for the elitist snobberies. This section fears the impending social change and will continue to support a morally bankrupt, visionless polity because it maintains their status quo. But an equally strong and vocal aspirational lobby will continue to push for inclusiveness, whether the Mr. Patels of the world like it or not.

What a fascinating article. Firstpost followers know about Mr. Patel. The best way to set them aside is like ignore them just like NaMo does and focus on the right things. Mr. Patel is not even worth mentioning in the journalistic world.

goldenhorde

Well if he’s worth ignoring, why don’t you Modi bots just do that? Why is every Aakar PAtel article littered with comments from the same Feku bhakts who claim to not give a damn about it. The truth is Aakar PAtel’s articles are based on truth and thats what gets to Modi fans. The idea that there’s someone out there not smitten with Modi just the way you guys are……………HA!

Krishna

True, Aakar Patel for PM! m/

His articles are full of ‘facts’. Ever cared to verify those ‘facts’?

Get real man. He is symbolic of the emptiness of intellect in journalism.

Aditya Kadambi

The m/ sign was a nice touch.
Also, Patel made a career, or atleast established himself in journalism through his attacks on CM Modi!
Without the latter, he wouldn’t be known!

Aditya Kadambi

No, they are based on opinions. His opinions. You may use terms like ‘truth’ and ‘fact’, but they are surely not subjective, are they now?
I thought facts had to be objective. And undisputable.
Is your middle name ‘Irony’, then?
I & other Modi bots(*) are happy to respond to ‘facts’ though.

*Modi bots? So if we don’t think this guy is a ‘mass murderer’ or a ‘fascist’ and actually understand what fascism means & why CM Modi isn’t one, we become Modi bots?
Regards

jigerpatel

I have always felt this unease in the elites of India. CM Modi would be a great catalyst for these so called “neo-literate middle class” in breaking the inferiority created in them by the likes of Aakar. It will come down to best ideas and that is where CM Modi will win over the visionless elitist Congressis.

Manik Tyagi

In fact that’s is the underlying fear that lot of casteist politicians like Mulayam, Mayawati have with the rise of Modi. What they fear is that if a so called OBC/Chai Wala becomes PM whom so called upper and lower caste love, then their whole politics of victimization would go down the drain.

S. Kumar

Mr Modi has never tried to highlight the fact of his ultra humble beginnings as a rail platform tea vendor. His supporters need to inform the poor people about this, he is different from silver spoon people like Rahul, Scindia, Tiwari, Digvijay Chiddu, Akhilesh et al and incorruptible unlike Laloo, Karunanidhi, Sonia, Pawar and, in fact, the vast majority of politicians. For Mr Modi, politics is ‘sewa’ not ‘mewa’.

goldenhorde

Actually its the neo literate middle class thats the biggest buyer of Modi brand. Wanna know what the aam admi thinks of him, go check out how his “charisma” worked wonders for BJP in KArnataka………

Aditya Kadambi

If/when Vasundhara Raje Scindia becomes CM of Rajasthan this year:
Even though CM Modi will most probably campaign there as well AND inspite of the facts that
1)Gujarat & Rajasthan have much more in common than Gujarat & Karnataka
AND
2)Rajasthan has a pretty big ‘Modi’ community

the win will still primarily be attributed to her(Vasundhara Raje Scindia) and not to CM Modi.
There are many states in India that like to perennially throw out govts. Punjab until recently did this all the time, Himachal voted differenctly in Lok Sabha elections to legislative assembly & so does Karnataka. Considering the shi* record fo the congress in the couple of months they’ve been in charge now & their previous performance, it isn’t going to be surprising if/when they get voted out of power again. The celebrations in the ‘we hate modi’ campl may be a bit premature, I’m afraid!!
Internal differences and their poor performance killed the BJP’s chances of winning that LA election. Yeddyurappa took his ball and bat and went home. On the national level, even with the internal differences, there will be no such new party formation.
Also, Yeddy was politically relevant when he opted out. Advani, isn’t!!

adigatsby

what is the point of writing online, when we know that most of us won’t go to vote, perhaps we should pledge that we will go to vote regardless of others..

SK

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people” And Modi discusses lofty ideas of a Gglorious India. Since these elitists have no substance but snobbery, they can not fight him with ideas. So they discuss him.

goldenhorde

Well Excuse Me, The guy’S running for the most important position in this country. Who else are we supposed to discuss? Rakhi Sawant? And if you’re such a great mind, what are you doing reading articles where a person is being discussed?

SK

I don’t mind people discussing, debating or criticising his ideas and execution. He is running for the most important post – it will be like a promotion after a fantastic job at state-level. But discussing his background without regard to his performance in good governance is simply ’empty talks’ – from those that cannot level arguments against his ideas. You completely missed my point – if I don’t think discussing people is a good thing, why would I consider Rakhi Sawant? I am reading an article where perception of a person’s background is discussed. I am a humble Indian, even sarcastically don’t call me a great mind. What my mind can or cannot do is for people concerned to judge. I am not in the public domain or government or even corporation – so you have no right to judge my mind – esp since you brought the Rakhi Sawant point.

Aditya Kadambi

No, you’re ‘supposed to discuss’ ideas or even events as the post you felt the need to froth at the mouth & respond to suggested!
The ‘Modi killed people by flying high int he sky and firing thunderbolts from his arse’ groups don’t seem to be capable of criticism of ideas or actions/policies, the consequences of those actions taken by CM Modi without tilting at windmills Don Quixote style!!

VeVePe

Beautiful work, Smita. Please accept my humble compliments.

Udit Gupta

very very well written Smita … because people are too much obsessed with degrees they forget that solving a problem requires new ideas which no degree can guarantee…

Aam Indian’s Queshns

Smita, has shown Aakar Patel light. Can’t be sure whether it’ll remove darkness. For, that is up to Mr Patel himself.
India has the potential to do much better for its citizen’s and at the world stage. The reason it has not are because some of it’s elite has not got sufficiently involved in the uplift effort required or has worked hard to preserve its relative status. Modi represents, as Smita has rightly asserted, aspirations of the non-elite plus those of the elite who think India can do better. It is not a coincidence that he is way ahead of the alternatives in the opinion polls. That has caused fear in the entrenched beneficiaries of the current dispensation. Mr Patel appears to write for them and Smita has responded logically enough and that should make Mr Patel rethink.

Mithram

Why u wasted an article space concerning that crap Bekar Patel he is a lost cause. He is going nuts because he cant stop Modi.

And he is a Racist idiot

mohan3501

A beautiful hard hitting piece on the Macaulaputras of Delhi! Those scumbags of St.Stephens, AMU and JNU are getting nightmares of Bharat Arising and fear for their loss of pelf , power and backroom manoveurs!

Prahaar

What you say is putting in words what many people may not have been able to elucidate what was incorrect in Bekar Patel’s argument. The reason for this confusion in the middle class readers is not due to low reading or writing skills, but it is due to the fact that those who have until now made maximum noise about inclusiveness are doing the untouchability-elitist-snobbery routine. This has confused people and it will take some more time for them to articulate their objections with the Bekars, Barkhas and Sardesais of this world.

Shyam Madhavan Sarada

Well put. You speak for me too, Prahaarji.

Gaurang G. Vaishnav

Very well said.

Shyam Madhavan Sarada

Succinct.

Indian

What is the link between a degree and ability of a person to administer a government and deliver good governance? That too when he has consistently delivered for 10+ years and endorsed by the ultimate “end users” i.e. the people of the state of Gujarat?

Don’t argue that so many ppl have voted and supported him and so many didn’t. The fact of the matter is he is having support and endorsement of “Majority” of the people choose to vote in assembly election(s). Mind well, he is running a government with Majority and not by alliance partners who are forced to support the government by hook or crook.

BTW everyone knows the governance delivered by one of the most educated PM our country ever had.

Modi speaks his mind. He speaks his mother tongue Gujarati, fluently. His second language Hindi, with the same competency. It is the third language that Mr. Akaar Patel – and others having similar “Vikaar” in their mind – have problem with. My dear fellow citizens, you are suffering with Inferiority complex. Please come out of the slavery mindset. We are in 2013 and India is an independent country! Have self resepct and respect fellow Indians, please!
Check which language and accent used by leaders of China, Germany and Japan. Jaago “India” Jaago!!

Ramya

Great article Smita.. look forward to reading more direct and clear pieces from you!

Sunjay

Aakar should remember that some people look down on people with humanities degrees working as journos.

Chor

In the world of PR, people generally look at journalists with utter contempt considering the insecure, rotten, corrupt, egotistic scum that many of them have evolved into.

If Modi, son of a small Tea Vendor from an obscure town didn’t get the opportunity to get the formal education then fault- if at all- lies with the socialist state India was in those days. Run by Jawaharlal Nehru and later Indira Gandhi.

More interestingly, what I fail to understand is, why Rahul Gandhi, who in stark contrast, even though he lacked the eligibility, was given admission to Harward on the strength of the donation of few hundred thousand dollars and family clout, failed to cut any mark there and was kicked out within a few months!!!

Yet the same media club hell-bent on Modi fault finding mission has no problem with this.

patnaikt

Very well articulated piece. But you see by and large the so called English speaking upper and middle class generally suffers from severe inferiority complex and Mr. Patel’s agony comes from that. He and people like him cannot digest the fact that someone who has not gone to school can some day become PM.

blrgal

Brilliant!! this man from humble origins will rule the country soon and will care 2 hoots for the Sardesai’s Bdutt’s or a Arnab Goswami english spouting morally bankrupt folks and that for the media is disturbing!! Knowledge or application of it is not a privilege of the college completed individual!! to think that a paper degree is so impt shows his small mindedness!!! if you can write a few lines in English does not make him a competent journalist!! Shame Mr.Patel that your education was limited to the paper.
I am a post grad and what i see in Modi is decisiveness, a vision , hope for the young of today…. the last thing that comes to mind is that he is a chai walla…. but my education taught me to respect a individual and it was not dependant on his/her education. The wisest were my grandparents – broad minded and their thoughts way ahead of society but hey they had not even passed metric… are they lesser individuals? You need actual education, stuff your degree or flush it even…. then try and open your eyes and maybe acknowledge that the humble background guy knows more numbers than your college dropuout RG or the Italian queen and her coterie who are all busy looting the money of the neo lietrate middle class Indian’s tax money!

Hansraj Chakraborty

First it was secular credentials now it is his educational background.
What next ?
Let me guess… his marital life?

Amit Pujara

And when nothing works they go back to godhra..

Yuvamani

Martial Life And Wife was discussed before..

Its funny how “liberals” become fans of “child marriage” .. Truly stupendous how interchangeable their position is

Are you a congress troll in disguise?
Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question!

Aditya Kadambi

She never felt the need to complain, like his ‘abandoned’ mother even though they have both been hounded by the media and had every opportunity to do so!
Boo Hoo!!

Amit Pujara

But then why have we created a world where degree means everything? Wonder if we would have degree courses to be good father, mother, husband, wife or friends.

Rakesh Babu G R

Elites: Modi shouldn’t be PM because he was a chaiwala once
Common junta: Modi should be PM because he was a chaiwala once and still has achieved so much

Amit Singh

Insignificant trolls like him Talk about democracy and then want to establish a monarchy of Gandhi’s in this country so such Mindset should be countered by denying such nincompoops what they are seeking publicity by calling others uneducated and not worthy but they forget one thing that he is being loved by country because of his qualities and his blathering will do no good to him.

Dhwaj

Additionally, was it really something like what we now call a correspondence course? As a private student, I guess, you do not get admitted to any college but register for the university exams and appear in the exams as any other student in a specified exam-center. People who could not pay admission and tuition fees etc. or those who wouldn’t attend classes anyway, used to appear in exams as a private student, I guess.

ANON DESI

Few things stand out in Aakar Patels thinking:

1) He refuses to understand or realize that great leaders exist not because of their degrees or from where they earned it.

2) He would rather lick a Britisher’s feet than be proud of a single Indian language. It is this ‘English is superior’ mentality that allowed the Brits to rule India/Indians so long!

3) NaMo is what he is despite bad education system that was in place, thanks to the congress ruled India during his years of formal education.

4) These are the types of pseudo elites (I call them brit or whiteskin foot lickers) who’d rather elect a foreigner who can pronounce Rendezvous/Entrepreneur/Restaurant properly than give respect to an Indian who is an excellent orator in Gujarati and Hindi (and can connect with his audience too)

5) He doesn’t seem to know of people interacting with POTUS with the help of a translator. And POTUS, doesn’t make the feel embarrassed!

Indians wouldn’t need English, if local economies were running optimally and gave everyone equal earning opportunity. I hope NaMo will achieve this!

There is a whole world out there (South America, Japan, Russia, China) that thrives without selling their souls to the English language.

Probably I/we should pity the likes of Aakar Patel, for he has lived in a cocoon (Congress) where sycophancy of any type gets rewarded while self respect and national pride is shunned.

And when these people say he can’t speak English, so what! Angela Merkel addresses EU in her language. Half the work – especially Europeans are learning Chinese as China is a big power. What’s wrong with Hindi?

Swati Patel

So, Ms. Barooah, you really believe that there are journalists lesser than Aakar Patel?! Good point in the article, but undue respect to a bigoted mind like Aakar.

http://www.captainjohann.blogspot.com/ captainjohann samuhanand

It is not entrenched elite which fear Modi but the fellows who work covertly for USA .Whether it is Nitish Kumar, Advani or Shiv sena are all working for US interests in covert way.

subramanian

college degrees are often the most useless of things,a pure commercial entity exists to make money.Its usefulness is far hyped and making it a necessary thing is highly useless.College degree only gives you contacts,even technical education like a kind of engineering can be learn on the job.And most of these college goers studying liberal arts and law have minimum or zero understanding of real life on the streets and dont have the will or intelligence to come up with the correct solutions.So,please dont waste time debating such nonsense ideas.

Jatin Sehgal

What a read! Smita, it’s a beautifully crafted piece where you have provided a point-by-pony rebuttal to Mr. Patel on valid grounds. You’ve talked about people’s aspirations and dreams and how they can connect strongly and relate themselves with Mr. Modi. In simple words, Maza aagaya.

Parin Vipul Shah

An excellent piece by Ms. Smita Barooah! I must say that the lady has maintained the grace and decency of language throughout the article. On the contrary, Mr Aakar Patel used very rouge language. I wish to pinpoint a few of blunders committed by our so-called “elitist” scholars… i wonder whether Mr Aakar Patel has any explanation to offer for this:

1) Given that the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh is an acclaimed scholar and a world-known economist, do you find him fit to rule India? PS: This so-called scholar and his deputies have embarrassed India globally, and that too repeatedly. Did you forget Dr. S.M. Krishna, another scholar, reading the speech of another country in a UN meeting? Well, that wasn’t an embarrassment, right?
2) How many of those so-called scholars are capable to define “secularism”?
3) Since when has English become a necessity to be in politics? It’s our colonial mindset, nothing else!

I have much more mud to throw on your stinking face, Aakar! The thing is, you’re nothing when compared to Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai or Sagarika Ghose. Get some stature first, and then publish such articles. Get a life moron.

Amit Yadav

A correspondence degree holder :

1. Provides 24×7 Electricity to his state,

2. Has worlds largest solar park in his state.

3. Provides piped gas to rural households.

4. Implements one of worlds best transport system BRTS.

5. Changes the face of Narmada river from rags to riches.

6. Successfully connects all the rivers in his state to fight with drought.

5. Home Minister reads the speech of some other country at global forum.

and Many More …..

Just for an example Late Shri Dhirubhai Ambani was not a degree holder but was one of the top businessmen in India. From whom all the oxford graduates were taking Instructions and lessons.

People like Aakar patel we Pity you on your thinking, your parents would be wondering what is the use of educating you. Your Mother might not have an oxford degree but still she is the best Manager when it comes to your own house…your father might not be an oxford degree holder that doesn’t mean that he is less than Barack obama..

Indian First

1000+ likes.. that deserves a separate article in itself..

Ashish Yadav

Wow you really follow NAMO’s work closely.

Aditya Kadambi

Fair enough, except the Obama line. My dada would never be in favour of bombing the shi* out of so many ‘middle eastern’ and south asian countries.
Considering the time wastage that occurs in the average college, correspondence makes much more sense often.
You work & learn, save time & outwork, outsmart a section of your compeition.

Amit Yadav

I thank Smita Barooah for bringing this up….

goldenhorde

Modi is a megalomaniac who never misses a chance for credit. All of us have seen his love for publicity and credit hogging. So, Modi claimings credit about Lizzat Papad, Induben Khakrawala or Jasuben Pizza wala is just an eye wash. All these operations began before Modi’s political birth. Modi should brush up his knowledge. Lizzat was born in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai and is even now headquartered in Mumbai and it was set up in 1959. Jasuben Pizza was started by a lady who migrated from Pune. Modi said jasuben is not fictional like kalawati. Well, Jasuben’s 35 plus year old pizza shop has nothing to do with Modi’s concern for women empowerment or welfare. In fact, Jasuben has died five years ago. Ditto with Induben Khakrawala. Modi simply wants to take credit for things he is not responsible for. If he wants to take credit for Lizzat papad set up in 1959, he should also take up credit for malnutrition in Gujarat girls, for shocking male-female sex ratio. Why does Modi always take credit for everything that is good and hearty. Why does he not take responsibility for what is wrong in Gujarat under his rule?· Modi’s bragging and fake credit claiming exercise is now known. If Modi wants to take credit for Lizzat or Jasuben, he should have also talked about Sewa, the world’s biggest women co operative movement initiated by Ela Bhatt. It is public knowledge that after Shri Ela Bhatt refused to help him in elections, there were special audit objections and other harassments to Sewa which has been praised by everyone from Nelson Mandela to Obama. Why did Modi not name Sewa? Because someone close to him is unsuccessfully trying to replicate the SEWA model and Modi cannot dare to offend this High Command of his?· Modi style of feminism is as slanted as he is. So he cracked cheap jokes on women and their use for cream and beautification. Modi tried in his best Bollywood style of dialogue baazi to focus on the role of women and how a Mother or a Wife plays her role perfectly. Mr Modi in the 21stcentury should know that true respect to women, true empowerment can come only when a woman is viewed as a woman. Her identity as a woman, as an individual is more important and she does not need a tag to be someones wife, daughter, mother, sister. She is herself an entity to be reckoned with, without any tags. She has to have that much independence. Otherwise it is cosmetic empowerment talk.· Modi could find time to go to Delhi and address FICCI women. Wish he has time or inclination to go and wipe tears of Jagruti Haren Pandya or those women in Rajkot whose family members have self immolated after being harassed by a former BJP MP and two BJP councillors. Modi had called Jagruti a daughter in the past? Does a father get a daughter’s husband brutally eliminated? Is this the idea of Modi’s women empowerment? Modi should first start respecting women in Gujarat

Ankur

Too much time it seems you have … replying to almost all Modi smitten fans … Sanjay Jha’s paid crony it seem you are. Tell us is it true that #eNREGA budge is just 100cr ? Looks like loose change from Congress’s standards

Gaurang G. Vaishnav

You are absolutely wring on Ela Bhatt issue. Read 25 page long article at

You are also the judge, jury and executioner. How dare you imply that Modi had Haren Pandya killed? has any court indicted him? has he been convicted?

All I can say is- you have verbal diarrhea which is caused by Modi virus.

http://www.facebook.com/bjpeconomiccell/ BJP Economic Cell

Who are you to order him? Keep singing your songs. No one cares.

You should first learn to read, be neutral, set your own brain and its electro-chemical-magnetic balance in order, to be able to perceive, understand things in correct context and with credibility.

Chor

Modi has his faults. He certainly isn’t the god some make him out to be. But Aakar Patel is the hyena who loves sniping at him, but would likely never have the gumption to take him on face to face, in front of a crowd. Also amusing is his characterization of Gujarat under Modi as ‘A money-minded, intellectually barren, segregated, ghettoized, non-drinking and vegetarian utopia’ that people like him (heh!) have fled from. Boring.

Indian First

Well, if a correspondence-graduate has found a way to make the Employment exchanges work in this country, he is more than capable than the harvard graduates who has brought the economy to halt and certainly better than the retarded gutter wallahs like Aakar patel

Joseph Anton

Aakar Patel: Modi has never been to college (his degree is from a correspondence course). His simple views spring from this lack of knowledge.

My reading: Mr. Modi’s documented extremism is partly explained by his not having had the moderating / liberalizing influence of a college experience /
education. He does have a degree, but it was received without the
aforementioned college experience, via a correspondence course. He then proceeds to explain Mr. Modi’s simplistic assumptions about people and groups (an example of non-vegetarians being temperamentally different human beings is provided).

Ms Barooah’s reads in the above:

1/ A degree is important to Mr. Patel

Nope, Patel says that Modi has a degree. He does not however have the college experience.

2/ No one from Steve jobs to Sonia Gandhi have had degrees, but Patel does not have a problem with them – thus showing his “skewed view” and “elitist bias”.

Huh?! Patel actually says Modi has a degree. Btw, all of the above have had the college experience. Wrong premise, thus wrong accusations.

3/ Mr. Patel is dismissive and mean-minded about people who undertake correspondence courses!

Whoa- this takes the cake!! Where and how do you read this? Mr. Patel parenthetically mentions the correspondence course only to explain the apparent disconnect between his having a degree and Mr. Patel’s statement about Modi not having been to college!

Ms. Barooah then proceeds to construct a whole article based on this patently false starting premise!

The only way I can explain this is that in looking for “unsaid assumptions” in Mr.
Patel (who we are told is part of the scheming “entrenched elite”), Ms. Barooah
is projecting her own elitist assumptions onto Mr. Patel. Absent such prejudices, no reasonable reading of Mr. Patel’s those lines in the article lead to that conclusion.

What Ms. Barooah, whith her “degrees in Political science” is amply illustrative of is that degrees such as hers are clearly not a measure of intelligence,
capability, or even language comprehension.

Skanda

“My reading: Mr. Modi’s documented extremism is partly explained by his not having had the moderating / liberalizing influence of a college
experience /education”

To link college going with moderate tendency is actually more ridiculous than Smita made it out to be. Osama did go to college, so did many Jihadis. So did many Maoist leaders. So did Owaisi – in fact he is educated in the west, and must be “more moderate”, isn’t it?

There is no “reasonable reading” of Akar Patel – there can only be an attempt to attribute some reason to what he writes where none exists.

Mahadev

If “degrees … are clearly not a measure of intelligence, capability, or even language comprehension.”, then why does Patel bother at all to analyze this issue?

If college experience is any indication of moderation why is JNU a hotbed of extreme Marxist thought? Or does Arundhati Roy, by any chance, fit into your definition of moderate?

It all explains because you are christian, and dont like typically Indian Cultured man from grassroots. You all converted people, whose part of of belief and nodal neural perception and understanding is confused between the culture you see around and live in, accompanied with monotheism of certain kind fed in (ofcourse not negative, but not in the same vibrations as the traditional Indian nodes of thinking)… and since your personalities have mixture of these two elements ( with nothing wrong in it)….You people shall always be against a hard Hindu leader who feels proud of his country, his ancestry, his country’s history and its contributions and will always see them high light…
While you people for conversion ( in whichever generation) had to fundamentally believe that the systems of this land are wrong or inferior ,otherwise why would one convert to an alien land faith…

So mincing by people like you shall be taken in that context…

shantanu jaiswal

aakar patel aperpetual bastard

Radha Raju

You have made Aakar look like Unaakar…LOL…brilliantly demolished his take,Smita!!

Ashish Yadav

Well written and no beating around the bush, clear and hard hitting where it hurts the most to the Indian elites, they just cant accept a non metro middle class no nonsense honest NAMO make it to Delhi.

Aside from whether Mr. Modi’s degree will hold water or if his eloquence will be an embarrassing matter; what stops anyone with adequate credential to contest for an election. May the best candidate win. In India it has been winners keepers so far. Let us see if there is going to be change!

Ashutosh Kulkarni

Tomorrow these people will come up with an argument that Modi would be an embarrassment to India because he does not drink wine which is served to foreign guests..

Amit Yadav

Now a days jobless journalists have only one way to get their articles featured on mainline news website and news papers – Just write negative about Modi your article will be featured in mainline media immediately. This is the state of Indian Journalism today..Shame.

Vikram

Aakar Patel’s real problem with Modi is that Modi has exemplary self confidence and doesnt accord any special status to “well read writer/commentator” types like him, just because they speak in Angrezi and also quote Ghalib at drop of a hat. For Bekar Patel, Mulayam or Deve Gowda will still work, because those 2 do not directly challenge his standing as leading light of India’s intelligentsia

trsingh

As per my view, problem with Mr Modi is… “He acts”. He acted against riot beginners in Gujrat. There he made mistake. He could have sat at home, like other politician handled riots till date. He could have started an inquiry commission which can submit report after 40-50 years.

People who says him nonsecular, what is their secular credential ? How many riots happened in UP and how it is handled ?

They knows, if this man comes into power, he is not going to spare anyone who is guilty. Let’s see who wins…. these corrupt politicians or people of this country.

Excellent article. Shame on the likes of Aakar Patel. These are the people who should hear and UNDERSTAND what Sh Rajnath Singh ji said today at Constitution Club on English (ending of the speech, of course the occasion was “Gai – Smridhi Ka Aadhar”) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRgd9FrnLpo&feature=youtu.be